Gavaskar slams ICC over Indian rain-rule snub

Updated: 03 June 2012 14:22 IST

Batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has hit out at the International Cricket Council (ICC) for retaining the Duckworth/Lewis rule for rain-affected games despite an alternative suggested by an Indian engineer.

Written by Agence-France Presse

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New Delhi:

Batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has hit out at the International Cricket Council (ICC) for retaining the Duckworth/Lewis rule for rain-affected games despite an alternative suggested by an Indian engineer.

The game's world governing body on Friday said it would stick with the rule devised by Englishmen Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis, as it did not feel that any improvements could be offered in the method put forward by V. Jayadevan.

Gavaskar, writing in his column for a national daily on Sunday, said the ICC should have at least given a trial to Jayadevan's system of calculating revised targets in limited-over matches.

"In all fairness ICC should have tried the Jayadevan method for a year, like they do with trial laws, and then decided," the former India captain said.

Jayadevan, an engineer from the south Indian state of Kerala, has spent a decade working on his so-called VJD system which has been used in Indian domestic matches since 2007 following a recommendation from Gavaskar himself.

The ICC's cricket committee, meeting in London, said it had considered Jayadevan's method in detail but found no evidence of any significant flaws in the D/L method, which was first introduced internationally in 1996.

Gavaskar also castigated the Indian media for failing to get behind Jayadevan.

"Unfortunately the Indian media was busy with the IPL (Indian Premier League)," the former opener wrote.

In England, Jayadevan's challenge has been seen by some as another attempt by India, the game's superpower, to chip away at the influence of the former colonial power and inventor of the game.